Lugoro Tutte is one of the 3 groups I work with on the sustainable development project of tailoring businesses. They are based in Gulu, Northern Uganda. They are currently 12 active members participating to our activities.
They have chosen "Lugoro Tutte" as their group name which in Acholi means "let people with disability struggle like everybody else."
Their vision is to empower people with disability to stand on their own, to not be idle and have better lives.
Their motto: Disability is not inability.
Mr Fidensio founded this group in 1993. They have grown in number until now and plan to help more and more people with disability in their city.
They are registered as a CBO in Gulu and have been organised with records, team and evaluation meetings. Which has enabled them to last until today. Their tailor shop consist of products like stuffed animal toys, tailoring of clothes, accessories and school uniforms, repairs, knitting sweaters, tailoring and knitting trainings. They also have skills in shoe making, bead work, hair dressing, charcoal business, arts and crafts, baking and liquid soap making which have helped them survive as a small business in the past. Covid 19 has unfortunately been a difficult period for them as orders were few and savings have mostly been used most for rent.
Having said that, they are still standing with good spirit and motivation.
We have worked together for 3 months using the Positive Deviance problem-solving approach for sustainable growth. This approach has been described in my previous posts.
As of today, Lugoro Tutte's main goals are to:
- Strengthen confidence in the team members. (trauma, fear, marginalized, stigma…).
- Come together to show abilities.
- Change the attitude of others towards people with disabilities.
- Empower economically, improve standard of living + livelihoods.
Their goals go beyond the business itself as they wish to empower more and more people with disability to stand on their own. But first, they need to generate stable income for themselves and their business in order to reach those goals.
We have now almost finished their short and long term action plan including smaller objectives, specific activities, responsible task persons, needed resources and desired outcomes. We will start our first training on marketing this month for them to structure their market analysis, decide on specific target clients and markets as well as on a clear marketing strategy to generate long term income and connections.
Ambition, Potential, Spirit and Strength
This team never ceases to surprise me.
They are very motivated and quick thinkers. We have done serious capacity building in the evaluation phase already. We were using the score card technique, I was guiding them with questions as they were scoring their team work and spirit, writing their score explanation and found solutions on the board.
It only took one move to make them do the whole process on their own. I said I wanted to get water in the nearest shop and asked one of them to write the answers on the board the way I have been doing while I am gone.
As I came back I didn't expect so much progress.
But here we had a great new facilitator already!
It was amazing to see how they grabbed the concept of the activity so easily and continued it on their own.
I then thought our new facilitator how to write ideas in shorter sentences, use the pen correctly and write in bold letters for everyone to read as well as asking the right questions to get complete answers.
Another activity was to interview successful tailoring groups around the city to get solutions based on behavioral changes for Lugoro Tutte to overcome their challenges. I went with them to one of the groups to show them the outcome I expected from this activity for them to make the most of it. Asked them to do the remaining 4 visits without me, report to me with pictures and videos as well as specific solutions.
Which they did very well and for the anticipated deadline.
I am impressed with their motivation, teamwork and organization, also having the skills to carry out activities planned together on their own. It is not expected to be easily done because the approach is one they have never worked with before.
On top of that, they are very grateful for the type of work we are doing and the skills they are getting. They told me no one has worked in that holistic way with them before and they are getting serious tools for sustainable work. They are convinced and already seeing how the work we are doing together will help them in the long term.
They impress me every time with their spirit and qualities. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside them and help them with their business growth and goal reaching. They really have the heart for their project. Which is motivating for me as well.
.jpg)
No comments :
Post a Comment